•The American woman
An unidentified American woman has narrated how two Nigerian internet fraudsters popularly known as “Yahoo boys” duped her of a huge sum of money in romance scams.
The not-so-little above 50-year-old woman also declared her love for Nigerian men, describing them as the “sexiest and most handsome men on this planet” despite her heartbreaking experiences, reports The PUNCH.
In a viral video yesterday, the woman spoke about how she met one of the scammers in 2020 on TikTok.
She displayed the young Nigerian’s picture and the one he used for his unsuspecting victims, adding that she got to know about his real identity and his girlfriend whom he is planning to get married to after he mistakenly dialled her contact with his Nigerian line.
“Back in 2020, I met this man, I was with him for ten months, and I got sick of him because he was always demanding money. He always wanted more and more, so I decided to say enough was enough because one day he made a mistake and called me from a Nigerian phone number, and he was trying to play it off that it was his friend’s number.
“So when I was finally done that I didn’t want to have anything to do with him again, he opened up to me. Now, he is about to get married to his Nigerian girlfriend (showed their picture).
“May God bless them and hopefully they have a long life together. God will bless their relationship. I also congratulated him. And I hope everything goes well for him,” she said.
Narrating her second experience, she asserted that it was with a young boy who played smart on her with another identity but later opened up that he did that to help his sick mother who later survived because he could foot the hospital bills.
The white woman said, “This second was a little different. He was more polite and considered my feelings, but then after a year with him, he decided to come out and tell me the truth that he was a young Nigerian boy trying to put himself through school and his mother was very sick. And he kept thanking me because I saved his mother’s life.”
“That one doesn’t hurt me much because I know that the money went for good. The other guy, that’s not good because I used to see videos of him throwing money around and spending it on Nigerian hook-up girls. I’m over it. I will bounce back one day.
“I still have love for the Nigerian people, the men are the sexiest and most handsome men on this planet. I pray that nothing like this ever happen to me again because now I know all those secrets. They destroyed my life financially. Please be safe in that country because I know that a lot of the people there are struggling. But you have to remember that a lot of American women are struggling too because it is difficult being a woman here and struggling too especially when you don’t have a partner.”
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has always cracked down on internet fraudsters across the states of the federation.
On May 2023, EFCC’s chairman, Mr. Ola Olukoyede, disclosed that the Commission secured 3175 convictions and recovered over N156 billion between May 29, 2023, and May 29, 2024, when President Bola Tinubu assumed office.
He stated this in Abuja at the launch of the Zero Tolerance Club at the University of Abuja, Gwagwalada, Abuja.
Olukoyede, who spoke through the Secretary to the Commission, Mohammed Hammajoda said the EFCC also recovered $43,835,214.24, £25,365.00, €186,947.10, ₹51,360.00, C$3,750.00, A$740.00, ¥74,754.00, R35,000.00, 42,390.00 UAE Dirhams, 247.00 Riyals and 21,580, 867631 Crypto Currency.
Speaking further, the chairman stated that though the EFCC put up impressive performance within the year, the involvement of youths in internet fraud continued to pose serious concerns to every stakeholder in the anti-graft war.
“In spite of this commendable performance, the commission is deeply worried about the increasing involvement of young people, including students, in cybercrime, popularly called Yahoo Yahoo. Hundreds of suspects are arrested monthly, with many of them ending up in jail,” he said.
